The invention relates to a depilation apparatus provided with a housing which accommodates a pinching member for consecutively pinching hairs growing from human skin and twisting these hairs about their longitudinal axes.
A depilation apparatus of the kind set forth is known from EP-A-0 549 051 , which corresponds substantially to U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,419, assigned to the same assignee as herein, U.S. Philips Corporation. The pinching member of the known depilation apparatus consists of an epilation member whereby hairs growing from the skin are consecutively clamped in, twisted about their longitudinal axes and ultimately pulled from the skin. Because in the known depilation apparatus the hairs are twisted about their longitudinal axes before being pulled from the skin by the epilation member, the adhesion between the hair roots and the hair follicles from which the hairs grow and the adhesion between the hairs and the hair vesicles are partly broken before the hairs are pulled from the skin. A considerable reduction of the pulling force required is thus achieved and the pulling along of the skin during the pulling out of the hairs, being an unpleasant experience, is partly avoided so that the pain experienced during the pulling out of the hairs is considerably reduced.
It is a drawback of the known depilation apparatus that the adhesion between the hair roots and the hair follicles and the adhesion between the hairs and the hair vesicles are not completely broken during the twisting of the hairs, so that the skin is pulled along to some extent during the pulling out of the hairs and the user experiences some pain during the pulling out of the hairs.